Love Will Find A Way
by Goofygoobers
Summary: Harry, Ron and Hermione and back for their 7th year. A group of new students have transfered to Hogwarts. The golden trio and these students quickly become friends. What new possiblitys will these new friends bring?
1. Summary

Summary

The final battle has come and gone and Harry, Ron and Hermione are on their way back to Hogwarts for their seventh and final year. This year will be different. With new students, new teachers, and new classes, a lot of thing can go awry. Will Harry finally find true love, or a new enemy? Will Ron and Hermione realize who it is they really love? And what's the hidden past behind these new students?

If you wanna know, read my story! I'm working on the first chapter right now, and will either post today or tomorrow.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Ello, my name is Devin, and I will be writing this lovely story for you. I hope you enjoy it. It will get pretty random in places, and you may not get my sense of humor, but oh well. Some criticism is appreciated, but comments like "this story is shit" makes no one happy, so please don't post them. Spankyou much! The POV will move around from General, Harry, and my OC. The random humor probably won't come till the next chapter, or the end of this one.

Love Will Find A Way

(POV General)

Harry was sitting on the edge of a lake in the middle of a large clearing. There were no sounds around him but the sounds of the forest. Everything was peaceful. He tossed a rock into the water and watched the ripples move along the surface. When they had disappeared, he looked up and spotted a figure across the lake. There was a girl, around his age. She was sitting on the ground, crying into her hands. He got up and started walking along the edge of the lake towards her. As he moved, he studied the young woman.

She was wearing a yellow sundress with sunflower patterns on it. She had long red, wavy hair that cascaded down her back and came to rest just above her backside. She was small in build and had pale skin.

He was now just six feet away from her. He moved slowly towards her and reached out a hand to touch her shoulder. She began to move her hands away from her face and turn towards him. He was finally going to see her face-

"Oi! Get up! Mum wants everyone downstairs for breakfast!" bellowed the voice of his best friend, Ron Weasley. 

"Son of a bitch," muttered Harry as he pulled his head out from under his pillow. He'd been having the same dream for weeks. Every time he was about to see the mysterious girls face, he was woken by something. He wanted to know who the girl was who haunted his dreams every night. Shaking his head, he climbed out of his bed and headed towards the bathroom to take a shower.

Ten minutes later, Harry waked into the kitchen of the burrow to find it filled with much noise. He looked at all the faces surrounding the table. There were faces missing that should be there with them, laughing and having a good time. Many had been lost in the war. It still affected everyone, but people were trying to move on. The main face missing from the Weasley table that morning was that of Fred Weasley. He had been killed during the war, and the family was still recovering.

"Good morning Harry dear. Did you sleep well?" asked Mrs.Weasley from the stove where she was cooking bacon.

"Very well thank you." He said as he took his place in between his best friends Hermione and Ron.

"Are you all packed and ready to go for when breakfast is done?" asked Mrs.Weasley, as she threw a stern look over her shoulder.

"Yeeees," chorused Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny.

"Good. Arthur should be along in a few moments with a ministry car. Maybe for ONCE we will make it to the train station on time!" said Mrs.Weasley as she shook her head. The four teenagers smirked at each other, each remembering the chaos that used to take place on mornings of going back to Hogwarts. They all finished their breakfast and trudged up the stairs to get their school trunks.

"So, did you end up having that dream again Harry?" asked Ginny.

"Ya. And I as SO close to seeing her face until SOMEONE came and woke me up," He replied giving Ron a meaningful glance.

"Sorry mate, but if I hadn't have come to get you up, Mum woulda beaten me with her spatula," said Ron.

"Ya well, next time I'm not gonna beat you with a spatula. My idea is more along the lines of sticking it somewhere, cause I know how much you like it when Malfoy does it," said Harry with a grin.

"That's it fuck face! You're going down!" yelled Ron as he lunged for Harry. Harry sprinted up the stairs, laughing and glancing behind him at Ron perusing him up the stairs. He ran up four flights of stairs until he reached Ron's room at the very top of the house.

"OK! OK! Truce!!!" Harry yelled as Ron tackled him as he ran into Ron's room.

"Only if you say "I love naked purple unicorns…..named Herman!" Ron said with a grin as he sat himself on top of Harry.

"Don't make me state your fantasies!" shouted Harry, hit voice muffled.

"If that's how you want it," said Ron as he raised himself off Harry and then let himself fall down on top of me. Harry let out a loud groan.

"Do I even want to know what you guys are doing up there?" shouted Ginny up the stairs.

"We're having kinky sex involving fuzzy handcuffs! Ron is very demanding!" Harry shouted back.

"I KNEW IT!" they heard George shout several flours down.

"Just say it Harry, before the whole house comes up here to see what we're doing and ends up hearing you admit your deepest desire of Herman."

"Urg fine! I…..love naked purple unicorns….named Herman," Harry muttered.

"Aw now mate, shout it for the whole house to hear. You shouldn't keep it all bottled up," Ron said with a grin

"I LOVE NAKED PURPLE UNICORNS NAMED HERMAN!!" he yelled just as Hermione walked into the room.

"Glad you finally got that off your chest," said Ron as he stood up and walked towards his bed where half the contents of his trunk lay, very much unpacked and very messy.

"You two need a therapist," stated Hermione as she plopped herself down on Harry's camp bed. "Did you guys see the paper this morning? There are a whole bunch of Americans and some Canadians coming to our school this year!" sad Hermione excitedly.

"Wooo, freaky foreigners to torment!" said Ron doing a little happy dance. Harry gave him a weird look, deciding that he would repress the memory of seeing Ron do that.

"I wonder if any of them love books!" Hermione said with a manic look in her eye.

"I'm sure there are 'Mione, but unfortunately for you, you're the only one in this world that spends so much time in the library that everyone calls you the book rapist. There they are, on the shelf, just being their bookish shelf and then OH NO! It's Hermione, coming to rape them with her mind!" said Harry as he waved his hands in her face. "But then again, maybe there is and you can fall in love and have books instead of babies."

"Harry…..you have a messed up mind. I'm not even going to ask how you came up with raping books with your mind…."

"With great skill. Now, help me find a missing sock. It's got Captain Underpants on it." Harry said as he got on his hands and knees to look under Ron's dresser.

Twenty minutes later, everything was packed and Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione were out in the garden waiting for the ministry car to arrive. After about five minutes, a lime green car pulled up in the Weasleys driveway. They all looked at it funny.

"Yay, we get to look like flaming gays!" said Ron jumping up and down happily.

"Right…..I'm not sitting next to him. I'm not in the mood to get molested," said Harry as he edged away from Ron.

"There's no escaping me! MUAHAHAHA!" Ron shouted as he dragged Harry into the car after him.

After half an hour of slapping Ron's hand off his thigh, and a lot of pouting from Ron, they reached Kings Cross Station. They made their way to the brick wall between platforms Nine and Ten and slid through the hidden entrance to platform 9 1/3. It was way more crowded then any other time that they'd ever seen.

"Holy shit there's a lot of people! We must be getting A LOT of new kids. I wonder how many will be in Griffindor-" Harry got cut off by someone bashing into him. The other person hit the ground and he landed on top of them. He looked up to see the bluest eyes he had ever seen. He was mesmerized by them.

"Ah! Get off me you perv!" the girl said in her Southern accent.

"Excuse me? You ran into me!" Harry said angrily, coming out of his trance.

"Don't be such a dink." She said.

"LIKE you just called me a dink!"

"Oh, but I believe I just did!"

"Why are you so irritating?"

"Why are YOU still on top of me?" she demanded with a smirk worthy of a Malfoy.

"Oh, right." He said as he jumped up. The girl pushed herself off the ground and stood facing her. She was very small. She was around 5'3 while he was at 6'4. She had long red hair, pale skin and the bluest eyes. He almost found himself being mesmerized by them all over again…

"Uh, what are you staring at?"

"Nothing!"

"Well PervBoy, as unlovely as it was meeting you, I must be off."

"Hey! I have a name! And I'm not a perv1" Harry said indignantly. She smirked at him again as she disappeared into the crowd.

"Well, I've already found a new kid I don't like," said Harry with a scowl.

"Oh come off it mate, be saw the way you looked at her."

"Ya, you totally like her."

"Nuh-uh!"

"He's in denial," said Ginny as she walked off towards the train, Ron and Hermione following behind.

"No I'm not!" said Harry as he hurried after them.

A/N: Riiiight…..that wasn't that interesting. But it'll get better soon. There's gonna eb unexpected twists, so look out!


	3. Meeting the new students

Love will find a way: Chapter 2

Hello again. It's been along time since I've updated, but ah well, genius takes time. I JUST realized that in the last chapter I wrote platform 9 1/3 instead of 9 ¾……oh well, minor typo. Well, enjoy the next chapter; I'm trying to make it longer than the first. The theme of the story is gonna be a bit different than I originally planned, its not gonna be just random humor, there's gonna be some serious stuff in here (its shocking really that I'm not just trying for comedy).

Love will find a way: Chapter 2

"Why are there NO empty compartments? I mean, there's not even any that are half empty!" said Ginny with a huff.

"There's one down here!" called Ron from further down the corridor. They all walked up to him and glanced in the window at the five occupants of the compartment. One particular redhead caught Harry's eye.

"No way in HELL!" Harry said, glaring at her through the glass.

"Fine, you can sit in the hallway." said Ron as he slid the door open.

"Hey! Can we sit in here?" asked Ron.

"Sure," said a boy with blue-tipped black hair.

Ron, Hermione and Ginny all proceeded into the compartment, leaving Harry standing outside in the hallway. He was seriously considering sitting in the hallway when he heard a disgustingly annoying voice call out his name. He looked to the left and saw a girl named Romilda Vain walking down the hall towards him. The memory of the chocolate caldrons suddenly came to mind. 'Oh fuck no' he thought as he practically leapt into the compartment.

When he was in the compartment, he noticed that there was only one seat free, the one beside the redhead. He sat down next to her being careful not to meet her eyes. He saw Romilda come to the window with a few of her friends. He sighed in relief when she walked by, seeing that there was no way she could manage to wedge herself into the compartment.

"Hi, my name is Ginny Weasley. This is my brother Ron," she said indicating Ron, "And our friends Hermione Granger and Harry Potter."

"Nice too meet you all. My name is Tristan Ely," said the boy with the blue and black hair. He had the same southern accent as the girl that Harry had ran into on the platform. He wore a pink T-shirt that said "Hugs, Not Drugs", black jeans and a brown leather belt that had a belt buckle shaped like the batman symbol. On his feet he wore orange and black Vans that had skulls on the sides. His hair was a little short, spiked up and tipped with blue. Harry couldn't help but notice he had the same eyes as the redhead. 'They must be related somehow,' thought Harry.

"I'm Merik Narraway," said the boy sitting closest to Ron. He was very tanned and had snakebite lip piercings. He wore a black T-shirt and that had Children of Bodom, a muggle screamo band, written on it. He wore black pants with chains and suspender straps, a pink and black studded belt and purple convers. His violet eyes were just visible through his black bangs, and his hair was spiked up at the back.

"I'm Carmen Edwards," said the girl sitting across from Hermione. Her blonde hair went down to the middle of her back. She wore a red hoodie over a t-shirt that said "GANGSTA", blue skinny jeans and black skater shoes. Her eyes were sort of a bronze colour.

"Ty Jones," mumbled a guy on the other side of the redhead. You could just see a bit of green hair falling over her eyes underneath the hood of a sweater that said "The Bled" across the front. His sweater was rolled up to the elbows, making visible his pink and black arm band on his left wrist, black jeans and black and white checkered shoes. You could just see and eyebrow bar sticking out though his bangs.

Harry turned expectantly to the girl next to him. He may have found her rude and annoying, but for some reason he couldn't explain, he was very eager to hear her name.

"My name is Kara Ely," she said in a melodious voice. Harry realized that he hadn't really taken in much of her appearance on the platform. Her blue eyes were partially covered by her bangs, her hair going right down to her butt. She was wearing a black hat that said "Tough enough to wear pink", and a green T-shirt that had Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street on it. She wore black pinstriped hip hugger pants and green convers with happy faces drawn on the toes. She wore bright blue nail polish and bracelets with large beads on her wrists. 'I think I may be beginning to notice a trend going on with the style in this group…..'

"Um, Merik, are your eyes actually violet or are you wearing contacts?" Hermione asked.

"My eyes are actually that colour. I is a freak of nature." He said with a goofy grin. (AN: yes, I meant to write I is)

"You guys have a quite a different style. I like it," Said Ginny, eyeing their clothes appreciatively.

"Ya, but we seem to stick out just a bit around here," Said Carmen.

"So where are all of you from? 

"Tristan and I are from Alabama, Carmen is from New York, Merik is from Nevada and Ty is from L.A." said Kara.

Just then they heard a knock on the compartment door. It slid open to reveal Draco Malfoy.

"What do you want Malfoy?" asked Hermione in a tired voice.

"You and I are supposed to meet McGonagall in the heads compartment in five minutes," he said.

"All right, I gotta go. It was nice meeting you all. I'll see you later at the feast."

"Bye Hermione," they a chorused.

After she left they all sat in silence for a few minutes.

"Ow, my ass hurts. Thanks dink face," said Kara, kicking him in the shin.

"Well maybe in the future you should watch where you're going."

"I should watch where I'm going? Tell me, which one of us is wearing glasses dink face?"

"I have a name!"

"I know. Its dink face."

"Aw, look at the flirting," said Tristan. "It's too adorable."

"Shut up Tris!" said Kara, picking up a book that was on the floor and flinging it at him.

"I'm the older brother, but somehow I'm the abused one. How did this happen?"

"Cuz you suck and you're only thirty seconds older than I am."

"Ah and what a marvelous thirty seconds it was……."

As the day went on they had random conversations and there was a lot of playful bantering. Ron was trying to teach Tristan how to play chess. Ginny and Carmen were looking though magazines that Carmen had bought just before coming to the train station. Ty had pulled an acoustic guitar down from the luggage rack and was now attempting to write a song. Meric had pulled out a sketch book and was quietly drawing, every now and then looking out the window to look at the scenery. Harry was sitting there, watching Kara. She had pulled and iPod out of her backpack and began reading the book Pride and Prejudice. She didn't seem to realize he was watching her. There was something about her that seemed familiar but he just couldn't place it…..

He heard a faint melody coming from her headphones and, from what he could tell, a very beautiful voice.

"What are you listening to?" he asked.

"I'm listening to Carmen and I signing a cover of a song. It's called I Belong to you. It's originally by a band called Super Chick.

"Can I listen?" Harry asked, giving her puppy dog eyes.

"Alright." She handed him the headphones and put it back to the beginning of the song while he put the earbuds in his ears. There was a few seconds of silence before he heard and acoustic guitar begin to play.

**Everybody needs to belong somewhere  
life can feel so alone without someone who cares.  
And when life becomes something just to get through,  
that's when I'm glad that I belong to you.**

I belong to you, I belong to you,  
you're the one who will never let me down,  
won't let me down.  
I belong to you.  
Lord I belong to you.

Sometimes life brings more pain than we can bear alone.  
When hope is gone and I have no strength to stand on my own,  
when nothing helps, there's nothing that I can do,  
you surround me and show me I belong to you.

I belong to you, I belong to you,  
you're the one who will never let me down,  
won't let me down.  
I belong to you.  
Lord I belong to you.

When Love is gone there's no arms to run to anymore,  
I'm all alone there's no one for me to live for,  
letting go of the things I've always clung to,  
that's when I need to feel that I belong to you.

I belong to you, I belong to you,  
you're the one who will never let me down,  
won't let me down.  
I belong to you.  
Lord I belong to you

"Wow that was really good. You guys have great voices." He said with a grin.

"Spankyou." Carmen replied from the other side of the compartment.

"Just a question, are you guys overly religious or something? Cuz of the 'Lord I belong to you' bit."

"Nah, we just did a cover of a Christian rock band and couldn't be bothered to change the lyrics." Kara explained.

"So do you all play music?" Ron asked as he cleared the remains of Tristan's Knight off the board.

"Yeah. Kara, Ty and I play guitar, Carmen plays Bass, Merik plays drums, and we all sing," answered Tristan.

"You don't strike me as the singing type Ty." Ginny said.

"Why's that?" he mumbled in reply.

"Well, you're really quiet; you've barely said anything the whole train ride." Ron said.

"Well, he's got a hell of a voice. Why don't you show them Ty?" Kara asked.

"I will if you sing with me." He said smiling at her.

"All right, what song?"

"Whiskey Lullaby." He replied. (the version of this song they're singing is by Rex Goudie and Melissa O'neil).

Kara shoved her iPod in her pocket and settled herself on the floor next to Ty, leaning her back against Meriks legs. Harry felt a quick stab of jealousy that she was so close to the other guys.

**Ty:  
She put him out like the burning end of a midnight cigarette.  
She broke his heart. He spent his whole life trying to forget.  
We watched him drink his pain away, a little at a time,  
But he never could get drunk enough you get her off his mind,  
Until the night**

Ty and Kara:  
He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger.  
And finally drank away her memory.  
Life is short, but this time it was bigger,  
Than the strength he had to get up off his knees.  
We found him with his face down in the pillow,  
With a note that said: "I'll love her till I die."  
And when we buried him beneath the willow,  
The angels sang a whiskey lullaby.  
La la la la la la la  
La la la la la la la  
La la la la la la la  
La la la la la la la.

Kara:  
The rumors flew but nobody knew how much she blamed herself.  
For years and years, she tried to hide the whiskey on her breath.  
She finally drank her pain away, a little at a time,  
But she never could get drunk enough to get him off her mind,  
Until the night.

Ty and Kara:  
She put that bottle to her head and pulled the trigger.  
And finally drank away his memory.  
Life is short, but this time it was bigger,  
Than the strength she had to get up off her knees.  
We found her with her face down in the pillow,  
Clinging to his picture for dear life.  
We laid her next to him beneath the willow,  
While the angels sang a whiskey lullaby.

La la la la la la la  
La la la la la la la.  
La la la la la la la,  
La la la la la la la...

"Whoa…..that was amazing. Guess I was wrong about you being a singer Ty," said Ginny with a smile.

The compartment door suddenly slid open behind them

"I thought I heard some familiar voices."

They all turned towards the door. There, leaning against the door frame was Neville Longbottom. Neville had change since they'd seen him last June. He'd grown a lot. He now stood at 6'5. His hair had grown out into a brown shag that covered most of his eyes. He had lost a lot of weight over the summer, his body now appearing very toned and muscular and very tanned as well (A/N: for a visual of his body structure, think of Lucas from One Tree Hill). He wore a blue long-sleeved shirt that was rolled up to his elbows, dark blue Hollister jeans and green and black Vans.

"NEV!" shouted the group of new students. Kara and Carmen jumped up from where they were seated and hugged him, tackling him to the floor.

"You all know each other?!" asked Ron, completely perplexed.

"Cha, Neville spends every summer with Kara and I." said Tristan as he got up off his spot on the floor to help the girls and Neville stand up.

"You've never mentioned being friends with anyone who goes to another school Neville," said Ginny.

"Well, the topic of 'crazy, psychotic, sugar crazed fiends from America' never exactly came up," he said as he flopped himself down in one of the empty seats.

"Did someone say sugar?!" asked Ty as his head shot up and he began looking all around the compartment.

"See, sugar crazed," said Neville with a laugh.

At that moment the conductor's voice rang though the corridors announcing that they would be arriving ad Hogsmead station in five minutes. All the students jumped up, frantically trying to get their uniforms from their trunks to put them down. The train came to a complete stop and they all made their way onto the platform and towards the carriages.

"YIPPE! CARRIAGES! I've always wanted to go in one!" shouted Merik as he skipped off towards them.

'This is going to be an interesting year….' Thought Harry as he and the rest of the group followed Merik towards the carriages.


	4. Authors Note

Hi everyone, this isn't an update. I haven't updated this story in FOUR YEARS, how crazy id that. I just re-read what I have though and I'd really like to continue this story. I'm gonna get started on a new chapter today. Hopefully I'll post it sometime tomorrow night, I'm in my second year of college now so my time isn't quite as abundant. BUT this will be a good way to kill time when I don't have class or work to complete. Thanks everyone!


	5. We have to do WHAT?

*Just a note, I have decided to make Kara and Tristan from Louisiana, specifically New Orleans cause I want them to have Cajun accents. And also I got a personal message asking how Merick is pronounced, and it is M-air-ick. Also I apologize if I spell any of the houses wrong, I can't for the life of me remember the spelling. And I apologize that the update took longer then I said it would, but I had to come up with a direction I wanted this story to go in because I couldn't remember my original plot*

The carriage ride to the school was for the most part uneventful, except for Kara and Harry occasionally bickering, until the castle came into view. The new students were in awe. "This place is an actual fucking castle?" exclaimed Carmen. "Well Kara we won't make it to a single class, we're too directionally challenged," she laughed.

"Hmmm maybe they'll get lost forever and I'll actually have some peace and qui- OW! GOD DAMN IT KARA! Stop throwing shit at me!" Tristan growled out at his sister, rubbing the right side of his chest.

"Now you know how painful it would be without me in your life Cher." Kara giggled back. Damn, that accent his hot, Harry thought with a smirk.

"You're smiling creepily. Stop it," whispered Ron.

The carriages pulled up to the front steps of the castle and all the students climbed out of the carriage and proceeded to climb the front steps.

"What's the deal with you guys? Are you already sorted?" Ginny asked as they passed through the doors to the Great Hall.

"You guys are supposed to follow me into a side room where we'll wait with the Head Boy until all the first years have been sorted," Hermione said as she began to lead the way to a door at the other end of the Hall. The new students trailed after her, looking around in amazement. "This ceiling is so fucking trippy…." they could hear Merick say before they drew out of ear shot. Harry couldn't help but stare at Kara's ass under her rolled over skirt…..

"Harry stop looking at her like that, you're practically drooling. Besides, if Merick catches you looking at his girlfriend like that he won't hesitate to beat you. He may not look it, but he's a cowboy underneath all the piercings and tattoos." Neville said as he clapped Harry on the back and began heading towards Gryffindor table. Harry felt a sinking feeling in his chest he couldn't understand. He didn't even like this girl. Sure, she was hot but she was a serious pain in his ass.

"She's dating Merick? You could never tell by looking at them." Ron commented as they settled down in their places on either side of the table

"I know right? But they've been together two years."

"SILENCE!" Professor McGonagal's magically magnified voice came from the front of the hall. They all turned to see the elderly witch standing behind the owl podium. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!" She received thunderous applause from all four tables. "As you can see our wonderful castle has been returned to its former glory over the summer. Now this year, there is going to be a few changes. The first of those changes is that we have a number of students coming in from a school in America. The reason for these students arrival will be revealed to the sixth and seventh years at the end of this feast if you would be so kind as to stay behind. Now, onto the sorting! First we'll have the new first years." At her words Hermione came out of the room off the front of the hall, leading a line of first years.

"Ouuu I hope the new kids we met get sorted into our house!" Ginny quietly squealed as they returned to the conversation, clapping politely whenever their house received a new student.

"Me too, I really miss those guys during the year, it'd be nice to have all my friends living together." Neville said with a smile.

Harry was torn. He knew if he and Kara were in the same house they would probably kill each other. But still, he wanted her to be in his house.

"Alright, now that the first years are over with, let us welcome our transfer students!" At that, Draco Malfoy led a group of about ten students into the great hall.

"When your name is called, please sit on the stool. I will place the hat on your head, and your house will be announced. After you know your house, please proceed to the appropriate table. Carmen Edwards." They watched Carmen's blonde head move from the middle of the crowd of students. She proceeded up the dais to sit on the stool. Professor McGonagal had just placed the hat on her head when the tear that served as the hat's mouth opened wide and announced, "Slytherin!" The Slytherin table, which had much diminished number, erupted into cheers and applause.

"How could Carmen be in Slytherin? She seemed so nice!" squawked Ginny as Carmen stepped off the dais, heading towards the seats at the Slytherin table.

"Carmen is nice. I've known her for a long time and she's a great person, but she does definitely have some Slytherin worthy attributes." Neville responded as he clapped politely.

"Besides Ginny, it doesn't really matter what house she's in. If there's anything to be learned from the war it's that we can't judge people that way." Ron said as he gave his sister a look for being so judgemental, which was surprising coming from Ron, the hater of all Slytherin's.

"Karoline Ely!" Harry felt himself tense up as he watched Kara sit on the stool and have the hat placed on her head. The hat remained silent for a moment or two before shouting out, "Gryffindor!." Their house erupted into cheers, the loudest ones being their group of friends. Kara started walking down the isle to take her seat on the other side of Neville, and Harry noticed as she walked a lot of male heads were turning her way.

"Tristan Ely!" Tristan clapped Merick and Ty on the shoulders on his way up the dais. After a moment of deliberation the hat announced, "Gryffindor!" They once again erupted into cheers and Tristan hurriedly made his way to sit opposite his sister.

The next student was one they did not know, so they all turned back towards each other.

"I'm really sad I'm not with Carmen! We've been roommates since we started school!" Kara said with a pout.

"You're sad? What's Carmen gonna do without you in the mornings? No one else will literally climb up on her bed and kick her out when she's being lazy," Tristan said with a laugh as he took a bite of a breadstick.

"Tyler Jones!" They all watched Ty lazily amble up to the stool and shove the hat on his head at a strange angle. It only took a split second before the hat said, "Gryffindor!" Ty tossed the hat back to McGonagal and sauntered his way over to the table.

"Poor Carmen, at this rate she's gonna be a loner," Ty said as he threw himself on the bench next to Ron, turning to wave his fingers towers the Slytherin table. They all turned towards the table where Carmen was sitting, and laughed as she stuck her bottom lip out and began to pretend to cry.

"Merick Narraway!" Merick was the last of the new students to be sorted. He walked up to the stool and placed the hat on his head. The hat was silent for a few minutes. The students around the hall began to get restless and were mumbling amongst themselves.

"I've never seen the hat take this long to sort someone," Seamus whispered as he leaned in towards their group. As soon as he stopped talking, the hat drew a breath and proclaimed, "SLYTHERIN!" Merick looked startled for a moment before he took off the hat, replaced it on the stool, and began to proceed towards the Slytherin table. Harry noticed him and Kara exchange a sad look as he took his seat next to Carmen, who looked very pleased to have one of her friends sorted into her house. They all turned their attention back to the front of the hall.

"Before we begin our feast, let me remind the sixth and seventh year students to please remain in the great hall at the end of the feast." McGonagal said, with a strange look on her face that sort of looked like a mix of pity and regret.

"Well guys, welcome to Gryffindor!" Ron said brightly as the food began to appear on the tables.

"It sucks that we weren't all in the same house though. Back in the states we don't have sections like you guys do, so no matter what we were always all together." Kara said sadly.

"Speaking of Houses, what's the dorm situation like around here?" Ty asked as he shoved a huge piece of steak in his mouth.

"Oh look it's like we have another Ron," Hermione stated as she took a sip of her pumpkin juice. Ron and Ty, cheeks bulging with food, turned to each other with confused looks, shrugged, and proceeded to go back to shoving their faces full of food. The rest of their group erupted into laughter.

"Here we have the four houses. Each house has it's own separate common rooms and dorms. There's girls and guys dorms and you share a room with the people in your year," Harry explained, pointedly not looking a the sad look on Kara's face.

"Ew. In our old school we only shared with one other person." Tristan wrinkled his face at the thought of so many people in one room. Talk just bounced from topic to topic, mainly about the workings of the school. The feast soon began to wrap up.

"So why do you guys think we have to stay behind after the feast? Were you guys told why you were being transferred here?" Ginny asked as they came to the end of their meal.

"No idea. But I know a bunch of other kids were transferred in and out of our school. So it must be something going on with all of the magical schools." Kara supplied as their plates cleared themselves. The younger students began to rise and head towards the doors at the end of the hall. The usual chaos of the prefects trying to track down the first years began to ensue. Soon the only people left in the hall were the older students and the teachers. The teachers all rose from the table and made their way to the base of the dais.

"Thank you for staying behind. We have an announcement for you that I'm afraid you are not going to like. Before I tell you, just let me say that myself, as well as a number of other prominent people in the wizarding community around the world tried to prevent this. The loss of lives was stretched world-wide during the war. There has been a significant decrease of population in the wizarding world. The Ministries of Magic all came together this summer in a summit to discuss this issue. They have come up with a solution in the form of a marriage law. The Law decrees that any unmarried witch or wizard between the ages of 17 and 30 are required to get married to partners assigned to you by the ministry within a months time. You will be required to conceive a child within your first year of marriage, and two more within the next 5 years. Those of you who have just started here have been moved here so that you and your partner will be in the same place. There will for the most part be no pureblood to pureblood pairings. The only way that will happen is if your best match happens to be a pureblood. Before you all start protesting let me be clear: there is no escape from this law. Not unless you want to have your wand stopped and be banned from the wizarding world forever."

The silence that followed this announcement was deafening. Every student in the hall was in shock. Nobody spoke a word until Draco Malfoy shouted out," YOU HAVE TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME!"


End file.
